ANT369H1 Week 6.docx

Science
-Imbedded in larger historical and political contexts
- Science has replaced religion in many ways for different people
- Science is institutionalized operating in every country
Rodney Stark
-“Real science arose only once”
- Philosopher of science
- Science rose at one historical projector in Europe
- Existed in antiquity
- Science is a complex institution consisting of sub institutions
- Based in fundamental axioms of religion
- Based historically and conceptually
- Scientists interested in occult matter (e.g. Ernst Gottel mathematician who wanted to
prove existence of god mathematically)
- Stark uses alchemy as an example; gave rise to science
Alchemy and chemistry
-Alchemy become population 16th century
- Rise of neo- Platonism: discovery of magic and occult
- Medical reform movement: observation and experimentation
- Money potential
- Subject for religious speculation: was written about at length about academics (is
important because it is what people believed in)
- All of these are at the level of thought
Institutional shift
- privacy of monasteries to the courts to the medical I situations to the u overstay system
Hermes Trismegistus
- Translates to “Hermes is the thrice great”
- Modern history says that no one in History existed with this name, deemed a story/
myth/ based on a living person
- Author of a hermetic: body of work; 42 volumes ranging from astrology to law to music
to medicine to mathematics to women to geography
- Dated from 3rd century BC to 1 century BC
- Hellenistic syncretism
- Gods of learning and writing
- Contemporary neo paganism draws from hermetic
- Important because it was a rediscovery
Marsilio Ficino
- Court philosopher
- Patron of the arts (Leonardo DaVinci)
- Translated Plato and Hermes - Believed that alchemy was the key to good health and good living
- Practical pursuit to alchemy and study of occult
- Way of control
- Proposed idea of cosmic alchemy: what happens in the world above happens in the
world below (to know the stars is to know how life will play out)
- To consider ---> con + sider = to consult the stars
- Ficino draws attention to cosmic alchemy (what happens up there predicts what happens
down here)
Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola
- Key figure in revival of occult philosophy
- Was a prodigy
- Translated Ancient Greek,Arabic, and Hebrew into Latin
- Heretic
- Held Islamic and Jewish scholars in high regard
- Brought together medicine and Kabbalah
- Was considered "out there"
Heinrich CorneliusAgrippa Von Nettesheim
- New alternative forms of thought was more excepted due to protectant reformation
- Created Christian Kabbalah : technique to win over people to Christianity using
occultism and natural magic of the world
- Combined groupings of elements
-Widely popular
- His works were scandalous, read across a wide range of society
- Was not prosecuted due to living during reformation
Paracelsus (Theophrastus Von Hohenheim)
- Famous for putting things together and breaking things apart
- Separated chemistry and alchemy
- Redirected alchemy toward more pharmaceutical interests
- Was an iconoclast
- Proto science was a deep source of cultural value
- Ideas seemed to be at odds with oppressive system
- Experimented with salt
- Considered to be a spur to the increase in the salt industry
- Chemistry only becomes a science in late 17th century; entered university system
through alchemy
- Done within a Christian framework
- All a part of gods work
Positivism
- The idea that you can take science and apply it to society
- Use existing methods about nature and apply it to societies
- Traces back to French enlightenment ideas Saint- Simon
- Challenge irrationality of religion (e.g. Catholic Church)
- Religious ritual was everywhere and became a distraction
- Wanted to transform society
- One of the founders of socialism
- Had a big influence on Marx
- Also one of the founders of neo liberalism
- Main focus was that history was driven by science and technology (poverty can be
solved by them)
Auguste Comte
- Loved magic and religion under the heading of theology
- Argued that there are stages of development in human thought
- Argued that positive science was the natural science of society
- Coined term social physics
- Outlines early influential and evolutionary theories
- Called himself the pope of positivism
- Created sociology as scientific discipline in universities departments
James Frazer
- Cambridge classicist
- Had evolutionary ideas between magic, science and religion (anthropologists do not
believe this anymore, has become pop culture)
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